Swedish Museum Of Natural History Research Articles

The complete mitochondrial genome of the common dace Leuciscus leuciscus (Teleostei: Leuciscidae)

This study presents, for the first time, the complete mitochondrial genome of the Common Dace (Leuciscus leuciscus (Linnaeus 1758)), in association with a voucher specimen from the Swedish Natural History Museum. The complete mitogenome length is 16,603 bp and comprises 13 protein-coding-genes (PCGs), 22 tRNAs, 2 rRNAs, and one non-coding control region. A maximum likelihood phylogenetic reconstruction based on 13 PCGs of Leuciscids species confirm the monophyly of the Leuciscus genus. Furthermore, this reconstruction has corroborated the placement of other Leuciscus species in this genus as L. leuciscus is the type species of this genus.

Satpuraphyllum furcatum—a new genus and species of Peltaspermales foliage from the mid-Permian Barakar Formation of India

Satpuraphyllum furcatum gen. et sp. nov. is introduced to accommodate once- to twice-forked leaves with slender entire-margined segments containing a midrib that gives off very acute, freely dichotomizing, secondary veins. The leaves are amphistomatic, bearing incompletely monocyclic to amphicyclic stomata and diverse trichomes, papillae, and sparse multicellular low domal glands. These collective characters favour assignment to Peltaspermales and this is supported by co-preservation, in the same beds, of leaves with shield-shaped bracts bearing marginal seed scars. Satpuraphyllum furcatum is documented from the upper Barakar Formation (Kungurian) of central India and is the oldest known peltasperm from the core regions of Gondwana. Its presence in the Satpura Basin at that time signifies an early penetration of Peltaspermales into the Southern Hemisphere, possibly during the Artinskian–Kungurian Warming Event (initiating ca 287 Ma). Deepa Agnihotri [ deepa_agnihotri@bsip.res.in ] Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, 53 University Road, Lucknow-226007, India. AK Srivastava [ srivasatava019@gmail.com ] 5/595, Vikas Nagar, Lucknow, India. Stephen McLoughlin* [ steve.mcloughlin@nrm.se ] Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, Stockholm, 10405, Sweden.

Re-investigation of Bowmanites laxus Halle, 1927, a sphenopsid fructification from the Permian of China

Halle (1927) described and illustrated sphenopsid plant remains from Permian strata (Shihottse Formation) in Shanxi Province, China in the early 1920s. He designated the particular stratigraphic sources as Plant Bearing Beds 14 and 31 and described Bowmanites laxus, n. sp. from the former and Bowmanites sp. from the latter. The illustrated specimens, as well as additional ones from both beds were borrowed from the Palaeobotanical Collections of the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden and re-investigated in order to prepare, re-illustrate, describe, and compare the species. The preparations revealed that the leaves in both species have the same morphology in the strobili as well as in the sterile axes and are arranged in open, not laterally fused whorls. Each leaf is arcuate and upwardly turned, the lamina is narrow at the point of attachment，and gradually expanded to become bilaterally laciniate and medially elongated into a sharply pointed apex. The sporangiophore in both species is axillary to the subtending sporophyll, remains free, following the upward curve of the sporophyll, and terminally, bears two peltately suspended sporangia that are aligned parallel to the lamina of the sporophyll. A single lectotype is chosen from/among the lectotype suite previously defined by Hoskins and Cross (1943). A systematic classification of the species is proposed. The summary of revisions of other sphenopsid species as suggested by Hoskins and Cross (1943) is presented in relationship to their proposal to divide the species of Bowmanites into three Sections in one of which B. laxus is included.

An earliest Triassic riparian ecosystem from the Bulgo Sandstone (Sydney Basin), Australia: palynofloral evidence of a high-latitude terrestrial vertebrate habitat after the end-Permian mass extinction

A landmark change in terrestrial ecosystems took place after the end-Permian mass extinction (EPME). This was marked by disappearance of the iconic latest Permian Glossopteris forests in Australian continental successions dated to 252.10 ± 0.06 Ma (mega-annum). Pioneering earliest Triassic spore-producing plants then spread following catastrophic wildfires, soil erosion and algal blooms. These ruderal plant communities were later replaced by vast Dicroidium ‘seed fern’ forests, which established under warm, seasonally dry conditions. By contrast, evidence of coeval vertebrate assemblages is scarce in Australia. The Bulgo Sandstone (Narrabeen Group) fossil biota in the Sydney Basin is, therefore, important as a rare example of associated plant and animal communities from the Early Triassic. The fossils include imprints and organic remains of lycopsid roots and attributed leaves (microphylls), Dicroidium and Lepidopteris foliage, and both erythrosuchid and smaller-bodied archosauromorphs, capitosaurians and other temnospondyls, actinopterygian fishes and sharks. Here, we undertake a palynofloral analysis of the vertebrate fossil-bearing bed within the Bulgo Sandstone to determine the assemblage age and palaeoenvironment. We identified a low-diversity miospore suite that is overwhelmingly dominated by lycopsids (42%), and especially quillworts (Isoëtales/Pleuromeiales) represented by Densoisporites and Aratrisporites. Bryophyte (moss), sphenopsid (horsetail) and ground fern spores are also present. Pollen (14%) comprises forms mainly associated with voltzialean conifers. The non-taeniate bisaccate Falcisporites (Alisporites) produced by Dicroidium is comparatively rare (3%). Based on this taxic composition, we correlate the vertebrate-bearing layer of the Bulgo Sandstone with the lower part of the Protohaploxypinus samoilovichii Oppel Zone and suggest a late Induan to early Olenekian age. Calculated sedimentation rates indicate that the 400 m of sediments between the top of the Vales Point Coal and the base of the Bulgo Sandstone were laid down within a time span of 40–400 ka (kilo-annum). Furthermore, the high portion of spores (37%) implies a parautochthonous organic accumulation that would have derived from local vegetation. This was likely riparian, with Dicroidium (and associated gymnosperm) cuticles (ca 20%) being over-represented because of a deciduous seasonal cycle. Notably, the Bulgo Sandstone accumulated on a high-palaeolatitude floodplain (ca 66–69°S) with dense vegetation flanking waterways that might have provided both shelter and forage for terrestrial vertebrates living less than 1 Ma after the EPME ecosystem collapse. Vivi Vajda* [vivi.vajda@nrm.se], Swedish Museum of Natural History, Svante Arrhenius väg 9, Stockholm 11414, Sweden; Benjamin P. Kear [benjamin.kear@em.uu.se], The Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University, Norbyvägen 16, Uppsala 75236, Sweden.

Unusual diagenesis of Cambrian chancelloriids from Greenland and Siberia

Phosphatized sclerites of Chancelloria and Allonnia are described from the Henson Gletscher Formation (Cambrian, Miaolingian Series, Wuliuan Stage) of North Greenland and the lower Cambrian of Siberia. They preserve diagenetic, unusually large, elongate crystals within the internal cavity (lumen) that maintain the imbricate lamellar structure of the original microstructure of the aragonitic sclerite wall. John S. Peel [john.peel@pal.uu.se], Department of Earth Sciences (Palaeobiology), Uppsala University, Villavägen 16, SE-75236, Uppsala, Sweden; Artem Kouchinsky [artem.kouchinsky@gmail.com], Department of Paleobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-10405, Stockholm, Sweden.

Long-term dataset for contaminants in fish, mussels, and bird eggs from the Baltic Sea

Widespread persistent contaminants are a global environmental problem. In the Baltic Sea, wildlife contamination was first noticed in the 1960s, prompting the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency to establish a comprehensive Swedish National Monitoring Programme for Contaminants in Marine Biota (MCoM) in 1978 run by the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Eight species have been analysed, four fish species (Atlantic herring, Atlantic cod, European perch, viviparous eelpout), one bivalve species (blue mussel), and egg from three bird species (common guillemot, common tern, Eurasian oystercatcher). Here, we present a dataset containing MCoM data from its start until 2021. It includes 36 sets of time-series, each analysed for more than 100 contaminants. The longest time-series is for common guillemot and starts in 1968. We describe the structure of MCoM including historic changes to the number of stations, sample treatment, analytical methods, instruments, and laboratories. The MCoM data is available at the Bolin Centre repository and on GitHub through our R package mcomDb. The latter will be updated yearly with new MCoM records.

Making the most of scarce biological resources in the desert: Loptuq material culture in Eastern Turkestan around 1900

BackgroundMost fisher-gatherer communities we know of utilized a limited number of natural resources for their livelihood. The Turkic-speaking Loptuq (exonym Loplik, Loplyk) in the Lower Tarim River basin, Taklamakan desert, Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang), were no exception. Their habitat, the Lop Nor marsh and lake area, was surrounded by desert and very poor in plant species; the Loptuq had to make the most of a handful of available biological resources for housing, furniture, clothing and fabric, fishnets and traps, tools and other equipment. The taxa used by the Loptuq were documented by foreign explorers at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, prior to the forced resettlement of the group in the 1950s and subsequent destruction of their language, lifestyle and culture.Methods and sourcesEthnobiology explores the relationship between humans and their environment, including the use of biological resources for different purposes. In several aspects, historical ethnobiology is more challenging; it studies this relationship in the past and therefore cannot verify results with informants. As the present study discusses an extinct culture on the basis of literary and material sources, we apply a method called source pluralism. This approach allows the inclusion and combination of a wide range of data and materials, even scraps of information from various sources, with the aim to understand phenomena which are sparsely mentioned in historical records.Travel reports by Swedish, British, German, American and Russian explorers together with linguistic data provide the most important sources for understanding Loptuq interaction with the environment and its biota. Especially the large number of toponyms and phytonyms recorded by the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin and materials from his expeditions, including voucher specimens kept in Stockholm in the herbarium of the Swedish Natural History Museum, and objects of material culture in the collections of the Ethnographical Museum, are crucial for our analysis about local knowledge among the Loptuq. Illustrations and photographs provide us with additional information.ResultsThe question of how the Loptuq managed to survive at the fringe of a desert, a marsh and a lake which changed its location, intrigued all foreign visitors to the Lop Nor. The Loptuq’s main livelihood was fishing, hunting and gathering, and their material culture provided by plants and other organic materials included their usage, consumption and trade. Only a handful of species formed the basis of the Loptuq material culture, but they had learned to use these specific plants for a variety of purposes. The most important of these were Lop hemp, Poacynum pictum (Schrenk) Baill., the riparian tree Euphrates poplar, Populus euphratica Olivier, and the aquatic common reed, Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud. Several species of tamarisk were used for fuel and building fences. A few plants were also harvested for making foodstuffs such as snacks and potherbs. In addition, the Loptuq also used fur, bird skins, down, feathers, mammal bones and fish bones for their material needs. The habitat provided cultural ecological services such as motifs for their folklore, linguistic expressions and songs, and the Loptuq engaged in small-scale bartering of plant products and furs with itinerant traders, which ensured them with a supply of metal for making tools.ConclusionThis article discusses the now extinct Loptuq material culture as it existed more than a hundred years ago, and how the scarce biological resources of their desert and marsh habitat were utilized. Loptuq adaptation strategies to the environment and local knowledge, transmitted over generations, which contributed to their survival and subsistence, were closely connected with the use of biological resources.For this study, a comprehensive approach has been adopted for the complex relationships between human, biota and landscape. The Loptuq are today largely ignored or deleted from history for political reasons and are seldom, if at all, mentioned in modern sources about the Lop Nor area. Their experience and knowledge, however, could be useful today, in a period of rapid climate change, for others living in or at the fringe of expanding deserts.

Detection of in situ resinous traces in Jurassic conifers from floras lacking amber

Amber deposits are rare in Jurassic successions, occurring in small quantities, whereas Lower Cretaceous strata host many substantial and commonly fossiliferous amber deposits worldwide. Minor amounts of Early Jurassic amber have been reported from Italy, and small amounts of Late Jurassic amber are known from Lebanon, Jordan and Thailand. Other Jurassic amber deposits that require reinvestigation of their age and provenance have also been reported from Denmark and France. Few of these amber deposits contain fossils, the others lack inclusions, suggesting a ‘Jurassic amber gap’ in the fossil record. Here, we surveyed fossil plant collections held at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, for amber and amberproducing plants from Jurassic floras. We focused on the collection of plants from Shaanxi, China and the Middle Jurassic floras of Iran and Afghanistan from the H.-J. Schweitzer collection. Using a hand-held UV light microscope, we scanned the collections for resinous remains as ambers can show autofluorescence with UV light, but found no dispersed amber fragments or droplets. Some researchers refer to fossilized resin within plant tissues under that name to differentiate it from exuded resins preserved as amber, and we follow this convention. We identified a conifer fragment of Elatocladus sp. from China with in situ rods of resin preserved in the leaves and a unique conifer twig (Elatides sp.) from Afghanistan with tiny linear resin traces in leaves that were only visible via autofluorescence with UV light. These resinous traces likely define the former position of resin canals in the leaves, but the resin is not preserved as in situ rods. Instead, it has impregnated the coalified mesophyll, likely during fossilization, to form thin lines (chemical ‘ghosts’ of preserved resin) within the conifer leaf remains.

Untangling the Derogenes varicus species complex in Scandinavian waters and the Arctic: description of Derogenes abba n. sp. (Trematoda, Derogenidae) from Hippoglossoides platessoides and new host records for D. varicus (Müller, 1784) sensu stricto.

Several studies have shown that the euryxenic trematode Derogenes varicus (Müller, 1784) represents a species complex. Four lineages have been designated (DV1-4) with the DV1 clade corresponding to D. varicus sensu stricto. Herein, we investigate newly collected specimens of D. varicus sensu lato from Scandinavian and Arctic waters using integrative taxonomy. The trematodes were collected from Melanogrammus aeglefinus, Eutrigla gurnardus, Trachinus draco, and Merluccius merluccius off the Atlantic coast of Sweden and from Hippoglossoides platessoides from Arctic Svalbard. 28S sequences of derogenids from Sweden were identical to D. varicus sensu stricto, confirming its euryxeny. The 28S sequences of Derogenes sp. from H. platessoides were identical to Derogenes DV2 and differed from D. varicus sensu stricto by 3% and from Derogenes DV3 by 2%. The 28S sequence divergences of Derogenes sp. from H. platessoides with D. ruber and D. lacustris were 3 and 10%, respectively. ITS2 and cox1 divergences between Derogenes sp. from H. platessoides and other Derogenes species/lineages were at levels of interspecific differences. The species from H. platessoides is described here as D. abba n. sp. We also examined the type material of Progonus muelleri (Levinsen, 1881), the type and only species of the genus Progonus, with redescription and designations of paralectotypes. Based on specimens from Theodor Odhner's collections at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, SMNH, Stockholm, we provide novel morphological and anatomical data for D. varicus sensu lato species complex. Lastly, we investigated Arthur Looss's "lost collection" of Trematodes at the SMNH and characterised a putative species Derogenes sp. "limula".

Wilhelm Stenhammar och folkmusikfrågan

This article focuses on composer Wilhelm Stenhammar’s relationship with the nascent Swedish folk music movement, namely the individuals, networks and organizations committed to preserving folk music in Sweden. The matter is briefly discussed by Bo Wallner in his biography of Stenhammar (1991), and his conclusion is that Stenhammar is ‘standing beside’ this movement. Unlike several contemporary colleagues he did not, for example, actively participate in the production of written records and, according to Wallner, seems to have lacked personal contacts with ‘experts’ on the subject. The present article is based on new or previously overlooked facts leading to a modification of Wallner’s conclusion. In the 1910s, Wilhelm Stenhammar was one of those who actively got involved in the issue of the possibilities of the phonograph in the documentation of folk music. He was in personal contact with Yngve Laurell, assistant at The Swedish Museum of Natural History, who had been educated at the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv. By engaging donors Stenhammar greatly contributed to Laurell being able to carry out phonograph recordings of Swedish folk music during several years. In 1914 Stenhammar was also one of eleven prominent figures in Swedish cultural life who signed an appeal for ‘a phonogram archive for folk music’ with the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv as a likely model. Placing Wilhelm Stenhammar beside the contemporary folk music movement without contacts with experts in the field is therefore wrong. By making Laurell’s recording work financially possible, his involvement also gained historical significance for the genre. Keywords: Wilhelm Stenhammar, folk music, folk music movement, phonograph, Yngve Laurell, Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv.

First report of Sphenothallus Hall, 1847 from the lower Cambrian of North China

Sphenothallus is a tubular organism that is one of the most widely distributed and longest-ranging genera through the Palaeozoic. Despite its apparent cosmopolitan distribution, the genus has never been reported from North China. New specimens of Sphenothallus sp. have been discovered in the upper part of the Houjiashan and base of the Mantou formations (early to middle Age 4, Epoch 2, Cambrian) in Jiangsu Province, North China. The specimens are small tubes (up to 5 mm long) and have typical Sphenothallus characteristics, such as a multilayered lamellar structure, and subcircular to elliptical transverse cross-section with a pair of longitudinal thickenings situated at the widest diameter. Our material shows that both the rate of apertural expansion and the curvature of the tubes are significantly larger in early growth stages than in the later growth stages. As the diameter of the aperture increases, the transverse cross-section of the Sphenothallus sp. tube changes from subcircular at the proximal end to elliptical or lenticular at the distal end, and its wall thickness changes from uniform to thickening longitudinally. The discovery of Sphenothallus sp. from the North China Platform represents an extension of its palaeogeographic range during the Cambrian. Rao Fu [furao@stumail.nwu.edu.cn], State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China; Yazhou Hu [eliyazhou@nwu.edu.cn], State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China; Timothy P. Topper* [timothy.topper@nwu.edu.cn], State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China; Fan Liu [liufan0122@hotmail.com], State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China; Yue liang [yueliang_nwu@outlook.com], State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China; Zhifei Zhang corresponding author [elizf@nwu.edu.cn], State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments and Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi’an 710069, China. *Also affiliated with Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, Stockholm 10405, Sweden.

Scanning electron microscopy study of Lars Silns cheilostome bryozoan type specimens in the historical collections of natural history museums in Sweden.

The type specimens of 42 cheilostome bryozoan species introduced by Lars Siln between 1938 and 1954 and housed at three different Swedish institutions (the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, the Biological Museum in Lund and the Museum of Evolution in Uppsala) are here revised using scanning electron microscopy, with two exceptions, for the first time. As a result of this revision, new morphological observations were made for some species, such as ooecia in Antropora erecta, a costal pseudopore in Jullienula hippocrepis, intracolonial variation in the number of intracostal windows in Costaticella gisleni, and oral spines in Triphyllozoon mauritzoni. Some other observations confirmed the presence of structures/polymorphs in type material that had previously only been noted in non-type specimens, such as spinose interzooidal kenozooids in Retevirgula triangulata and putative brooding zooids in Bugulina kiuschiuensis. Structures originally interpreted as hydroid tube openings on the dorsal side of Triphyllozoon microstigmatum were confirmed to be avicularia, while the supposed kenozooidal attachment rootlet of Fedora nodosa might be the polypide tube of a coronate scyphozoan. In addition, the original combination Heliodoma goesi is here reinstated after Lagaaij assigned the species to Setosellina in 1963. The following new combinations are also proposed: Labioporella aviculifera for Siphonoporella aviculifera; Mangana canui and Mangana incrustata for Callopora canui and Tegella incrustata, respectively; Sphaerulobryozoon ovum for Fedora ovum. Lectotypes were selected when appropriate. This work clarifies the exact identity of some species that have never been recorded after their first description, such as Stylopoma magnovicellata and three species of Triphyllozoon, and contributes to the current increasing effort to digitize historical key specimens in natural history museum collections.

‘The man who vacuum cleaned the Atlantic’ − the aerosol collector and Gunnar Erdtman’s attempts to measure pollen rain

In 1937, the Swedish palynologist Gunnar Erdtman (1897–1973) mounted two adapted vacuum cleaners atop an ocean-going liner and set out to obtain air samples as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The devices were able to capture samples of airborne pollen which were related to air volume and distance from land. The results of this investigation are still cited in the scientific literature, but a study of publications demonstrates that the ocean study had land-based antecedents. Furthermore, archival investigation reveals the background to such studies, including the technical plans for Erdtman’s ‘aerosol collector’, records of raw data from the voyage, draft portions of the key publication, photographs and the precise location of the land-based equipment. A storage loft in the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm has been found to house a surviving aerosol collector.

On the types of Bolboceratidae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) in the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.

The investigation of the Bolboceratidae collection of the Stockholm Museum of Natural History (NHRS) yielded 12 type specimens of eight Afrotropical and one Australian species. The majority of these types belongs to species described by Carl Henrik Boheman (1796-1868) based on specimens collected by Johan August Wahlberg (1810-1856) in southern Africa. In two of these species, we found ambiguity among potential syntypes. Therefore, based on comparison with original descriptions, we designate lectotypes for Bolboceras caffrum Boheman, 1857 and Bolboceras exasperans Péringuey, 1908, both of which are today classified in the genus Bolbocaffer Vulcano, Martínez & Pereira, 1969. Finally, we establish Bolboceras matabele Péringuey, 1908 (syn. nov.) as a junior subjective synonym of B. exasperans, we confirm a few synonymies that were historically established without study of type specimens, and we resurrect Bolboceras dorsuale Boheman, 1857 from previous synonymy under B. maculicolle Boheman, 1857 (Mimobolbus dorsualis (Boheman, 1857) n. comb. and stat. rev.).

Zoologica ScriptaVolume 52, Issue 3 p. 185-186 EDITORIAL Lutz Bachmann, Corresponding Author Lutz Bachmann [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0001-7451-2074 Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Correspondence Lutz Bachmann, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, PO Box 1172 Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorPer G. P. Ericson, Per G. P. Ericson orcid.org/0000-0002-4143-9998 The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, SwedenSearch for more papers by this authorHege Vårdal, Hege Vårdal orcid.org/0000-0001-8711-6177 The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, SwedenSearch for more papers by this author Lutz Bachmann, Corresponding Author Lutz Bachmann [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0001-7451-2074 Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Correspondence Lutz Bachmann, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, PO Box 1172 Blindern, 0318 Oslo, Norway. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this authorPer G. P. Ericson, Per G. P. Ericson orcid.org/0000-0002-4143-9998 The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, SwedenSearch for more papers by this authorHege Vårdal, Hege Vårdal orcid.org/0000-0001-8711-6177 The Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, SwedenSearch for more papers by this author First published: 03 April 2023 https://doi.org/10.1111/zsc.12594Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL No abstract is available for this article. Volume52, Issue3May 2023Pages 185-186 RelatedInformation

Prehistory of an enigmatic mineral: hisingerite

ABSTRACT According to most sources, the type locality for the hydrous iron silicate mineral hisingerite is Riddarhyttan, Västmanland, Sweden, first reported in 1828. However, it was described by A.F. Cronstedt as early as 1751 from Väster Silvberg, Dalarna (under the name “kolspeglande järnmalm”), and in 1810 by W. Hisinger from the Gillinge iron mine, Södermanland (“svart stenart”, later “gillingit”). J. Berzelius introduced the presently valid species name (originally spelt “hisingrit”) in 1819. Potential type materials are preserved by the Swedish Museum of Natural History, from Gillinge and Riddarhyttan. A Hisinger specimen from Gillinge has recently been analysed and was shown to contain associated potassic-hastingsite, magnetite and fayalite that explain the previously observed aluminium contents and high density for “gillingit”, compared to pure hisingerite.

Study of types of the Arthrostenus Schoenherr in C. J. Schoenherr collection, with a new synonymy (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

Types of the three species of Arthrostenus Schoenherr, 1826 described by C. H. Boheman, housed at the C. J. Schoenherr collection in the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm are examined. The lectotype is designated for Arthrostenus fullo Boheman, 1836. The holotypes of Arthrostenus spadiceus Boheman, 1836 and Arthrostenus cinereus Boheman, 1836 are conspecific, which resulted in a new synonymy as follows: Arthrostenus spadiceus Boheman, 1836 = Arthrostenus cinereus Boheman, 1836; syn. nov. Digital photographs for the three types are presented.

Equine Strongylidae and other parasitic nematodes described by Arthur Looss during 1895–1911 in the collections of the Swedish Museum of Natural History

Prof. Arthur Looss (1861-1923) was a prolific German parasitologist, who, among other things, authored descriptions of 22 new species of nematodes and 115 new species of trematodes. After his death, his collection (including type material) was split between several institutions: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington (USA), Natural History Museum in Berlin and the Natural History Museum in Leipzig (Germany), Gothenburg Museum of Natural History and Swedish Museum of Natural History (Sweden). Here we revise all type specimens of nematodes from the A. Looss collection that are currently preserved in the Swedish Museum of Natural History (Strongylus subtilis, Sclerostomum edentatum, S. vulgare, Cyathostomum labratum, C. coronatum, C. bicoronatum, C. calicatum, C. alveatum, C. catinatum, C. nassatum, C. radiatum, C. elongatum, C. auriculatum, Triodontus minor, T. serratus, C. labiatum and Uncinaria polaris), designate and describe lectotypes wherever deemed necessary and provide catalogue access numbers to all type materials. We also revise all notes and drawings associated with new species that A. Looss described and provide previously unpublished pencilled sketches and ink print-ready drawings of some of these species (Strongylus subtilis, Cyathostomum poculatum, C. radiatum, C. elongatum, C. calicatum, C. auriculatum, Triodontus serratus, Trichostrongylus vitrinus and possibly Necator africanus).

A Revised Typification of Cucumis acutangulus (Cucurbitaceae)

The current neotype for the name Cucumis acutangulus L. is incorrect according to Art. 9.13 of the ICN, as original material is extant. The name is lectotypified using a specimen from the Linnean herbarium at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm. A second-step lectotypification is proposed for the name Cucurbita umbellata J.G. Klein ex Willd., a heterotypic synonym of Luffa acutangula (L.) Roxb.

Hidden in the fog: morphological and molecular characterisation of Derogenes varicus sensu stricto (Trematoda, Derogenidae) from Sweden and Norway, and redescription of two poorly known Derogenes species.

Derogenes varicus (Müller, 1784) is widely reported as a trematode with exceptionally low host specificity and a wide, bipolar distribution. However, several recent studies have suggested that D. varicus represents a species complex and based on molecular evidence, four genetic lineages (labeled as "DV1-4") have been designated within the D. varicus species complex. This possibility requires improved (ideally molecular) characterisation of specimens from the type-host (Salmo salar) and type-locality (off Denmark). During examination of trematode parasites of fish from Scandinavian and Arctic waters (Sweden and Norway), we found specimens of D. varicus in the stomach of Merlangius merlangus off the coast of Sweden, and in Gadus morhua off the coast of Sweden and Norway; we compared them to D. varicus from the type-host, the Atlantic salmon Salmo salar fromNorway, to verify their conspecificity. Newly generated sequences (28S rDNA, ITS2 and cox1) of Scandinavian and Arctic specimens consistent with D. varicus all formed a single clade, DV1. 28S sequences of D. varicus from S. salar from Norway, i.e., close to the Danish type locality, clustered within the DV1 clade along with sequences of D. varicus from various hosts including Limanda limanda, G. morhua and Myoxocephalus scorpius from the White Sea and the Barents Sea (Russia), without any host-related structuring. We thus consider that the lineage DV1 represents D. varicus sensu stricto. Additionally, specimens from M. merlangus had a similar morphology and anatomy to those of D. varicus from L. limanda, G. morhua and M. scorpius from T. Odhner's collection, supporting the presence of a single species in the DV1 lineage designated herein as D. varicus sensu stricto. We redescribe D. varicus sensu stricto, add new morphological characters and provide morphometric data. We infer that D. varicus types DV2-4 all relate to separate species. We also revise type-specimens of Derogenes minor Looss, 1901 from the A. Looss collection in the Swedish Museum of Natural History and provide redescriptions of it and of the type-species of the genus, Derogenes ruber Lühe, 1900. In light of their morphological distinctiveness relative to D. varicus sensu stricto, we reinstate D. parvus Szidat, 1950 and D. fuhrmanni Mola, 1912.